so ill post a few of my failed examples below along with what I came up with as a fix, and then the actual correct code. I feel like im so close to grasping this, but missing some logic. this is for a hangman game.

one of the failed attempts:

import random
word_list = ["aardvark", "baboon", "camel"]
chosen_word = random.choice(word_list)

#Testing code
print(f'Pssst, the solution is {chosen_word}.')

#Create an empty List called display.
#For each letter in the chosen_word, add a "_" to 'display'.
#So if the chosen_word was "apple", display should be ["_", "_", "_", "_", "_"] with 5 "_" representing each letter to guess.


display = ["_"] * len(chosen_word)


guess = input("Guess a letter: ").lower()

#If the letter at that position matches 'guess' then reveal that letter in the display at that position.
#e.g. If the user guessed "p" and the chosen word was "apple", then display should be ["_", "p", "p", "_", "_"].

for letter in chosen_word:
if guess == letter:
for i in range(len(chosen_word)):
display.insert(i, guess)

print(display)

second:

for letter in chosen_word:
  if guess == letter:
    for i in range(len(chosen_word[letter])):
      display.insert(i, guess)

I ended up just saying screw it and went to this:

display = []
for char in chosen_word:
    if guess == letter:
        display += letter
   else:
    display += "_"

correct way of doing it:

import random
word_list = ["aardvark", "baboon", "camel"]
chosen_word = random.choice(word_list)

print(f'Pssst, the solution is {chosen_word}.')

display = []
word_length = len(chosen_word)
for _ in range(word_length):
  display += "_"
print(display)
  
guess = input("Guess a letter: ").lower()


for position in range(word_length):
  letter = chosen_word[position]
  if letter == guess:
    display[position] = letter

print(display)

so as you can see, i get that I can grab specific parts of a list using indices or slices, but somewhere in my brain my logic is wrong. if you guys have struggled with this before or if you have a good youtube video to help me break it down id be beyond thankful!

  • @potterman28wxcv@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    31 year ago

    Instead of blindly trying code until it works I would suggest you to write on paper the distinct steps that are required to solve the problem.

    Imagine you are the computer and you can do nothing else but what Python allows you. How do you solve the problem ?

    Usually people do this exercise on a small example. Then they generalise the approach when they find examples where it does not work.

    • @OsnapitsjoeyOP
      link
      21 year ago

      Ahhh you know what. This would help me. Because when I’m stumped, I’m definitely just “blindly” trying different orders of things and getting frustrated. Thank you very much for the tip

      • @potterman28wxcv@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        Yeah sometimes you just have to take a step back and think again. Then you will think more clearly and actually know what you wrote :) good luck!